By Luka Binniyat

ABUJA -  Though Nigerian is endow red with at least 34  metal and non-metal minerals, the Federal Government has agreed to concentrate on building an enabling environment for the exploitation of 7 for now, which it tagged “7-strategic” minerals.

Speaking to the Press in Abuja, recently the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mrs. Diezani  Allison Madueke  named the minerals as: Gold, Coal. Iron Ore and Limestone. The others are: Lead/Zinc, Tantalite and barites.
She said that their strategic importance is borne from the fact that they can be found across all the six geo-political regions in commercial quantities.

“If well harness”, she told the Press, “these mineral can lead to a dramatic development of Nigeria”
She said that Power Generation; Food Security, and wealth creation are just some of the good things that would come from them.

“They can also lead to high quality and cheap roads, putting the availability of Bitumen in mid”, she said.
“If big time miners take advantage of this and investe, the way they have been showing interest, we would eliminate illegal mining and in the process, take stock of the mineral we produce and adequately charge the right taxes to swell our national income”, she said.

“In view of the current adverse economic situation confronting the Nation and the world at large”. she said, “it has become imperative to place special emphasis on these 7 strategic minerals out of our 34 for now”, she said.
“Gold, Coal, Iron Ore and Bitumen are top among the 7”, she said.

2,734 MILLION TONNES OF COAl
She said that it has been estimated that Nigeria has an estimated reserve of 2,734 million metric tonnes and inferred reserves of 391,42 million metric tones of coal located across various states.

“Coal remains the most important fuel for power generation worldwide and will remain so for decades to come”, she said.

She said that the Federal Government has endorsed coal among Nigeria energy mix

43 BILLION BARRELS OF BITUMEN RESERVES
On Bitumen, she said that an estimates  reserves of Bitumen, based on oil equivalent, (boe) , Nigeria has about 43 billion boe straddling  parts of Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos

“Nigerian Bitumen resources are considered to be in league with  that of major bitumen deposit in the world”, she said.

“Already”, she went on, “investors with required technical and financial capability have shown interest in the exploration of our Bitumen”
She said that already, two of the blocks have been put up for bidding since June this year.

VERY HIGH GRADES OF GOLD
“Nigerian gold field stretches from Katsina and Zamfara States in the North, through the North Central States, South Western and South Eastern belts with estimated deposit of over 500,000 ounces”, she declared.
She said that at the moment, Nigeria has a number of juniors explorers whose result so far shows very high grades of gold ranging from 35 to 50 grammes per tone of ore.

Accoding to her, this has given the Ministry, the impetus to show-case Nigerian gold at major international investment fora.